Republicans have stepped up their investigation into the origins of COVID-19 by sending a subpoena to a former top adviser to Dr. Anthony Fauci.
Last week, the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic revealed that Dr. David Morens, Fauci’s top aide at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), allegedly used his personal Gmail account to discuss the COVID-19 pandemic. in 2020 to circumvent federal transparency laws. .
At the time, Morens’ official government work email would have been subject to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests that could have publicized his daily communications.
Subcommittee Chairman Rep. Brad Wenstrup, R-Ohio, said Morens used Gmail to “intentionally [subvert] federal transparency laws to protect discussions related to the origins of COVID-19.
Now, Wenstrup has sent a subpoena to Morens demanding that she turn over documents from her personal email account regarding COVID-19, coronavirus grant funding, and her communications with Fauci and former NIH Director Francis Collins, among others. senior health officials.
A whistleblower provided evidence to Rep. Brad Wenstrup, R-Ohio, alleging that Dr. David Morens used his personal Gmail account to communicate about the COVID-19 pandemic. Morens’ official work email is subject to Freedom of Information Act requests
Morens was a senior advisor to former NIAID Director Dr. Anthony Fauci during the pandemic and, according to his LinkedIn account, still works there in the same capacity.
The committee underestimated documents related to Morens’ communications with former NIH Director Francis Collins (left) and former NIAID Director Anthony Fauci (right).
Wenstrup requests that the material be sent by April 30.
The Ohio Republican previously said a whistleblower provided him with materials indicating Morens’ use of his personal email.
Those emails provided by whistleblowers show Morens using an ‘@gmail.com’ account to correspond with Dr. Peter Daszak, director of EcoHealth Alliance, a nonprofit research organization, in connection with a research grant from the government.
In a batch of documents released last week by EcoHealth, Daszak emailed Morens saying “we will contact you via Gmail from now on,” before mentioning that he had “15,000 samples in freezers in Wuhan,” which they could help them “do the whole job.” genomes of more than 700 [coronaviruses].’
Another email to Morens appears to reveal Fauci’s attempts to provide “damage control” to EcoHealth.
“Tony is now fully conscious, I believe, and I’m told he’s involved in some kind of damage control,” Morens told Daszak.
Republicans previously revealed that EcoHealth and the Wuhan Institute of Virology, in partnership with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), submitted a proposal to federal officials seeking funding to create a new coronavirus in 2018.
And Wenstrup has accused EcoHealth of using taxpayer money “to fund dangerous gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.”
“These emails raise serious concerns that federal health officials may be covering up the origin of the pandemic,” Wenstrup previously stated.
In the email above, Daszak can be seen telling Morens about 15,000 samples in a Wuhan lab that could help them map the genome of more than 700 coronaviruses.
The subject line of one of the messages between EcoHealth’s Morens and Daszak’s personal email includes a reference to a National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant proposal that provided $661,980 for a 2019 project titled “Understanding Risk of the appearance of coronavirus in bats”.
Another subject line of his personal email reads “COVID-19 update (312): China, origin of SARS-CoV2, animal reservoir, WHO mission,” indicating that the two were discussing the origins of the disease.
A third email from Morens had a subject line referencing “our R01 suspended,” possibly indicating that funding for the bat coronavirus research project stopped at some point.
However, during his transcribed interview with the Select Subcommittee in January, Morens ‘denied having removed any federal records of COVID-19 origins,’ according to the lawmaker.
Morens also previously admitted to the committee in a closed-door interview that “I will delete everything I don’t want to see in the New York Times.”
“I always try to communicate through Gmail because my NIH email is constantly subject to FOIA,” Morens told the committee at the time.
Morens’ admission that he intentionally conceals his communications led Wenstrup to send a letter to Boston University professor Dr. Gerald Keusch, mentioned in the emails.
Wenstrup requests the production of all documents and communications related to Keusch’s correspondence with Dr. Morens, the committee stated.
That includes any emails with “other people and entities with knowledge of and access to material about the origins of COVID-19.”
“This letter continues our investigation into the possible cover-up of information about the origins of COVID-19 by US public health authorities,” Wenstrup writes.
The Republican asked Keusch to turn over his communications with several federal officials by April 25.
Daszak (left) and Fauci (right) were likely aware of the Wuhan Institute of Virology’s desires to create a new coronavirus as early as 2018, Republicans allege.
EcoHealth, led by Daszak, in partnership with the Wuhan Institute sought federal funding for gain-of-function research
Earlier this week, Senator Rand Paul announced that at least 15 government agencies, including NIAID and the National Institutes of Health (NIH), had information about the Wuhan Institute of Virology proposal.
And even though these officials knew that EcoHealth, the Wuhan Institute, and NIAID wanted to create a disease similar to COVID-19, they did not reveal the labs’ intentions to the public.
Further muddying the waters are Paul’s accusations that Fauci may have been involved in influencing decisions made around the origins of COVID-19, which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention still says likely came from bats. and not from a Chinese laboratory.
“We also have stories, rumors and insinuations that Fauci was a frequent and unofficial visitor to the CIA.”
Paul says Fauci’s secret trips are important because ‘the CIA still officially says [COVID-19 is] probably from animals.’
Paul noted how the CIA disagrees with the conclusions of the Department of Energy and the FBI who have said the pandemic likely originated from a leak at a laboratory in Wuhan, China.
And that although an initial CIA assessment found the lab leak theory to be probable, senior agency officials overturned its findings.
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., announced that his investigation into the origins of COVID-19 has found that at least 15 government agencies were aware of the Wuhan Institute of Virology’s effort to create a new strain of coronavirus.
That means, according to Paul, that Fauci almost certainly knew of Chinese labs’ desire to create a new coronavirus, since the NIAID was a partner in the proposal.
“So in January and February of 2020, instead of Anthony Fauci speaking out and saying, ‘Oh, wow, we were briefed on this.’ It seems like they ended up doing what we were briefed on: Instead of saying that, he tasked people with to say otherwise,” Paul told DailyMail.com.
“It makes me think there’s really something there that they’re hiding.”
Meanwhile, Dr. Peter Daszak will testify publicly before the House on May 1.
EcoHealth and Dr. Morens did not respond to a request for comment.